Opposition party prepares to join transitional government

Former Burundian President Jean Baptiste Bagaza announced on Wednesday that his Parti pour le redressement national (PARENA) was preparing to join the transitional government led by President Domitien Ndayizeye. "PARENA and government teams will start negotiations on the issue," he said after a lengthy discussion with Ndayizeye. A spokesman for the Tutsi-dominated PARENA, Zenon Nimubona, told IRIN on Thursday that the negotiations would focus on the restoration of peace, the country's economic programme and the party's participation in the transitional institutions. The teams are also expected to discuss the number of political posts to be held by PARENA. Bagaza has stated that his party would want the vice-presidency, a post now held by Alphonse Marie Kadege from the Union pour le progress national (UPRONA), another Tutsi-dominated party. The vice-presidency was also sought by the Conseil National pour la Defense de la democratie-Forces pour la defense de la democratie (CNDD-FDD) rebel faction led by Pierre Nkurunziza but after negotiations with the government, the group was allocated four ministerial positions, including one for a state minister in the office of the president. On 1 November, the Burundian government and Nkurunziza's CNDD-FDD finalised talks in which they agreed on outstanding issues from previous negotiations, paving the way for the faction's entry into the transitional institutions. The government said a government said it would reorganise in three weeks to incorporate the CNDD-FDD. Under the terms of the August 2000 Arusha Accord for Peace and Reconciliation, signed in Arusha, Tanzania, the country's president and vice-president must come from different ethnic communities - the majority Hutu and the minority Tutsi. Bagaza did not specify whether or not his party would join the transitional government in the forthcoming reshuffle expected later in November to allow the CNDD-FDD representatives to enter the institutions. Bagaza only said this would depend on the "rhythm and pace" of the negotiating teams. "As the negotiations have not yet started, it would be difficult to be part of the government as we cannot enter the government and discuss what we will be doing in it afterwards," Nimubona told IRIN. Although PARENA, considered one of the hard-liner Tutsi parties, signed the Arusha accord, it has boycotted participation in the three-year transitional government provided for in the accord. It refused to join most of the transitional institutions except the Senate where Bagaza held a seat in his capacity of former head of state, a post he did not resume when he was released on 5 April after four months under house arrest. He was placed under house arrest in November 2002 for allegedly plotting to kill the then President Pierre Buyoya and the speaker of the national assembly, but he was never charged. Nimubona told IRIN that PARENA had not refused to participate in the transition, rather, it had not been given the opportunity "to continue negotiations" as it considered the Arusha accord incomplete. The party has stated that the Arusha accord was only concerned with the sharing of political posts rather than the restoration of peace in the country. On 7 May, the government lifted a six-month-old ban on PARENA, saying the party had not engaged in violent acts during the period of its ban. It had been banned after the government accused it of holding illegal meeting and of publishing unauthorised and inflammatory reports. Upon the lifting of the restriction, the party was allowed to conduct political activities countrywide.